Chapter 158: Killing the Tiger with a Single Arrow

Upon hearing this voice, Song Mu raised his head and immediately spotted a short, plump figure not far away.

The other person was also climbing the mountain at the moment, but his eyes were fixed entirely on Song Mu.

Seeing Song Mu's gaze turn toward him, the fellow hurriedly averted his eyes and quickened his pace with a somewhat awkward air.

Seeing the other person's face, Song Mu's expression darkened by a couple of shades.

This fellow was none other than Song Wencong, the so-called scion of the Song family from the Hongzhou Prefecture Academy this time around.

Obviously, this guy had also joined the mountain hunting expedition today, laden with various kinds of gear on his back.

As Song Mu stared straight at him, the fellow seemed to suddenly realize the situation and quickened his pace even further, blending into the crowd of disciples from the Hongzhou Prefecture Academy to avoid any further eye contact with Song Mu.

Seeing this, Song Mu said nothing. He merely let out a cold snort from his nose and continued to press forward up the mountain with his head down.

A guy who was only capable of empty talk was not worth arguing with.

Once they showed their true mettle shortly, everyone's true capability would become abundantly clear.

Thinking this to himself, Song Mu felt an even deeper aversion toward the Hongzhou Song family.

People cultivated under such family traditions were full of high-sounding morals on their lips, yet their minds were entirely consumed by underhanded plots and schemes to harm others.

After the group had hiked up the mountain for a short while, a night scout suddenly appeared before them and issued a brief warning, followed by a faint rustling sound echoing slowly through the woods.

Prompted by Xiao Xiong and the other instructors, Song Mu and the others separated and stood in formation, watching the front cautiously.

The next moment, a fierce tiger with ringed eyes and a white forehead roared and charged down the wooded slope. Its massive, orange-and-black striped body lunged forward abruptly, snapping a swathe of trees in its wake.

However, this fierce beast was unlike ordinary animals; its body was rippling with demonic aura. It was already a demonic soldier.

Furthermore, it was a demonic soldier of a feline variety with an extremely dense demonic aura, and its strength might even be approaching the realm of a demonic general, making it exceptionally ferocious.

"We've finally found this bastard! It managed to escape last time!"

At that moment, a scholar said with great excitement, instantly drawing his longbow and nocking an arrow to shoot.

Seeing this, the other scholars followed suit and mimicked the action. For a moment, dozens of people moved into action, creating a rather spectacular scene.

However, observing this situation, Song Mu took a couple of steps back instead. Rather than drawing the longbow from his back, he unsheathed the longsword at his waist.

Back when he was in the forest earlier, Song Mu had crossed paths with such fierce beasts quite a few times, and like the others, he had hastily nocked bows and shot arrows. But soon afterward, Song Mu had keenly discovered a problem.

Arrows could indeed harm these creatures, but against such demonic soldiers, their physiques were terrifyingly resilient. A tiny arrow wound, unless it struck their eyes or mouth, could hardly cause them to drop dead immediately.

To kill this creature more efficiently, one needed to inflict massive wounds upon its body instead.

Sure enough, after the crowd unleashed a volley of arrows, the tiger now had several shafts protruding from its hide. Fresh blood was gushing from the bloody holes, which only provoked the tiger into an endless roar and made its ferocious glare even more intense.

"Stop shooting arrows blindly! Use sabers, write footwork poems, and step forward one by one!"

Xiao Xiong appeared behind the crowd at that moment and rebuked them. Recovering their senses, the students hurriedly put away their bows and arrows and drew the swords hanging at their waists.

Before long, a flurry of poetry and literary papers began to burn, and the longswords in the students' hands started to emit various auras.

For dozens of scholars to bully a single demonic beast barely at the realm of a demonic soldier was indeed making a mountain out of a molehill, but it was sufficient for educational purposes at the moment.

Without waiting for orders from the instructors, the students rushed forward one after another, brandishing their longswords with lightning-fast footwork and shimmering literary power.

Song Mu followed among them. He applied two layers of poetic literary power to himself, gripped his sword, and charged directly at the tiger from the flank.

Up close, this large tiger indeed looked somewhat terrifying, but Song Mu clenched his sword hilt tightly, banished the fear in his heart, and slashed down fiercely with the longsword in his hand.

Striking with its sharp edge, this single sword blow proved effective, and a large swath of blood began to stain the tiger's neck.

Having delivered his strike, Song Mu did not linger for battle and immediately turned away as other scholars stepped in to fill the gap behind him.

The tiger roared incessantly, but its movements were growing increasingly heavy.

It wouldn't be long before this beast perished.

Song Mu stepped back to the side, preparing for another charge. When he raised his head, he suddenly saw two people rushing toward the tiger's rear. Song Mu's eyes widened and he shouted at the top of his lungs,

"Watch out!"

Several others issued warnings simultaneously, their eyes filled with a trace of anxiety.

As the saying goes, a tiger's backside must not be stroked. Although the tiger could not see what was happening behind it, one should never forget a tiger's steel-like tail, which was as thick as a heavy club.

That thing was vicious enough; a single sweep could practically cost a man half his life.

Just as Song Mu cried out, those two individuals had already appeared behind the tiger, and everything unfolded precisely as Song Mu had anticipated—the tiger had already sensed the situation.

Two miserable screams rang out consecutively as the pair tumbled backward away from the beast. Simultaneously, however, the tiger let out a sharp, piercing roar.

The beast whipped its head around and lunged straight toward the two fallen figures.

Cries of alarm immediately broke out among the crowd, and Xiao Xiong and the others stationed on the periphery began to channel their literary power, preparing to step forward.

Right at that moment, a shrill piercing sound tore through the air, and a beam of light shot forth, instantly plunging straight into the open jaws of the roaring tiger.

A prolonged shriek cut off abruptly. The tiger seemed to lose its breath in a fraction of a second, its massive carcass crashing heavily to the ground, triggering tremors and kicking up a cloud of dust.

As for the two individuals, they were now sitting flat on their backs just a meter or two in front of the tiger.

Still shaken by the ordeal, one of them turned around and saw a figure standing mere meters behind them.

With sword-like eyebrows and star-bright eyes, the tall young man held a longbow in his hand. On the bowstring, the charred remnants of a burned literary paper were slowly drifting downward.

It was none other than Song Mu. He was breathing heavily, yet his expression carried an overwhelming sense of pleasant surprise as he looked at the scene before him.

This recent strike had actually been executed by Song Mu almost instinctively—pulling the longbow from his back, extracting a literary paper, and drawing the bowstring, every movement had flowed as smoothly as moving clouds and flowing water.

If there was any difference, it was that Song Mu had utilized a poem already imprinted within his internal ancient book this time.

And Song Mu was currently marveling at the astonishing results brought about by this strike.

He could clearly sense that while his movements had been crisp and decisive, the power of the poem had also increased significantly.

Such a circumstance was ample proof that the ancient book in his mind could grant a very respectable bonus to his everyday combat methods.

Meanwhile, the surrounding people swarmed around the dead tiger. Seeing blood gushing from the beast's mouth and a massive hole blasted through the back of its head, they looked at one another in utter astonishment.

"This single arrow pierced clean through the tiger's skull?"

Someone asked, straightening up and turning his head to look at Song Mu.

Those who knew Song Mu were astonished that his offensive capability had grown to such a terrifying degree.

As for those who did not know him—or had only just met him—they were amazed by how clean and decisive the young scholar's strike had been.

Even Xiao Xiong, who had hurried forward, froze for a moment. After all, this demonic soldier had been infinitely close to a demonic general, and he had anticipated that killing it would take two or three quarters of an hour. He never expected it to perish under Song Mu's arrow in the blink of an eye.

At this moment, Xiao Xiong also looked up at Song Mu with a gaze tinged with a hint of shock.

And tucked away in a corner of the scene, a single person watched everything unfold. A trace of shock flickered across Song Wencong's trembling face, his eyes laced with a mixture of wariness and chilling malice.